In today's world, architects must design structures that take the comfort of those inside the structure into account. As all bodies exchange thermal radiation with their surroundings, architects and engineers often consider the Mean Radiant Temperature (“MRT”) of a location, and how it relates to the comfort experienced by a person. The most accurate system to date requires a very costly and time consuming process involving multiple radiometers taking readings across a spectrum of wavelengths at a given location. As has been a standard practice for decades, however, those in building sciences typically measure MRT using a black-globe thermometer. A black-globe thermometer consists of a black globe with a temperature sensor probe placed in the center.
However, there are drawbacks to using a black-globe thermometer. The black-globe thermometer does not actually measure surrounding temperatures, but rather the internal thermometer or sensor simply outputs the mean temperature of the black globe surrounding it. Thus, a black-globe thermometer cannot easily provide information about the MRT of multiple parts of a location, but only the area immediately adjacent to the globe. Therefore, to capture information about a space at a given point in time, multiple black globe thermometers would be necessary. The globe can in theory have any diameter, but standardized globes are made with diameters of 0.15 m (5.9 in). Large globes are bulky and not aesthetically pleasing, but the smaller the diameter of the globe, the greater the effect is of air temperature and air velocity on the internal temperature, thus causing a reduction in the accuracy of the measurement of the MRT.
Thus, there has been a long-felt need for a single, simple cost-effective device, system, or method that can quickly and accurately measure the MRT, and provide information regarding multiple locations, that is not impacted by convection effects.